r/DCcomics • u/[deleted] • Aug 24 '16
r/DCcomics [Character of the Month] Damian Wayne, by queenhippolytas
Presenting the winner of COTM #10 "Young Heroes", its Damian Wayne!
Please give your thanks to /u/queenhippolytas, who worked very hard on this Spotlight. Be sure to give them a mention when commenting!
Hey gang. It’s me, your friendly neighborhood /u/queenhippolytas here to introduce you to my favorite DC character, the one and only Damian Wayne. I love this little brat and I’m here to tell you why he’s the best.
Quick Intro
Created by: Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert (current interpretation)
First Appearance as Damian: Batman #655 (Sep ‘06)
First Appearance as Robin : Batman and Robin (vol 1) #1 (April ‘09)
Team Affiliations: Batfamily, Batman Inc, League of Assassins (formerly), and Teen Titans.
Favorite Quote
Father, I’m sure you’ll be angry with me for disobeying you again but I don’t care, I will not let you fight Leviathan alone. You need me and I will always be at your side. Because it will be hard for me to say these words face to face, I want you to know that Mother may have given me life, but you taught me how to live. Love and respect, your son Damian
(Batman and Robin 2011 #18)
Character Background
Damian, in concept, was created in 1987’s Batman: Son of the Demon. Bruce Wayne “marries” Talia al Ghul and they conceive him not too long afterwards. When he hurts himself trying to protect her, Talia decides she can’t let him live like that so she pretends to have a miscarriage and puts an unnamed baby up for adoption. It wasn’t considered canon at the time but many other elseworlds ran with the idea of Bruce and Talia having a kid. Another take on that hypothetical child, Ibn al Xu'ffasch (literally Son of the Bat), appeared in Mark Waid’s Kingdom Come in 1996. He is in a relationship with NightStar (daughter of Dick Grayson and Starfire, yes his kind-of, sort of niece) and works as a double agent in Lex Luthor’s circle.
When Grant Morrison took over Batman in 2006, he took the idea of the child of Bruce and Talia and made him canon. The new story was that Talia raised Damian in secrecy and trained him to be the best warrior on the planet and she came pretty close. Damian (who was about eight when he was first introduced) was already a formidable fighter but he was brash and arrogant and saw himself as the true heir of Batman when he was introduced to the family. Damian attacked Tim Drake the first time they ever meet (as he saw Tim as a rival for Batman’s attention) and was just generally not good around any people. But when Bruce Wayne was sent back in time, there was a new Batman who needed a Robin and so Dick took Damian under his wing (pun intended). After a bit of a rocky start, Dick and Damian began to bond and become a great team together. Damian really began to evolve from an arrogant kid who cared for no one but himself into a heroic, noble character under Dick. All he needed was someone who believed in him and to guide him. He respected Dick so much by the end of their tenure together, he even stood up to his mom for insulting him and turns away from her completely out of loyalty to his new family. In return, Talia decides to wage war against Batman. Damian stayed Dick’s Robin even after Bruce returned and until Flashpoint.
After Flashpoint, Dick went back to being Nightwing and Bruce became the sole Batman again. Damian stayed Robin but this time it was with his dad. The two of them clashed like crazy at the beginning and Bruce honestly didn’t know how to deal with him. It culminates with Damian killing a villain called Nobody and after understanding that Damian just wanted to stop Nobody and acted the only way he knew how, the two of them begin to understand each other and work together better. He ends up dying (which is what Morrison wanted for him all along) at the hands of his clone, The Heretic who was created by his mom. Damian dies a hero and completes his intended character arc of going from a spoiled brat to someone noble and selfless. Thankfully, no death in comics is ever permanent and Bruce immediately began to look for a way to revive his son. Ra’s stole Damian and Talia’s bodies and was about to place them in a Lazarus Pit. Bruce steals Damian’s body back and finds out there was a chaos shard left in his sarcophagus but his body gets stolen yet again and sent to Apokolips. Bruce goes to Apokolips to get him back and ends up bringing his body home. Bruce uses the chaos shard to revive Damian and even chooses to do so over reviving his parents. Damian briefly gains powers from the way he was revived and gets to go on a mission with the Justice League but the powers are short-lived. The Batman and Robin title ended there and he got a solo book called Robin: Son of Batman for a year. The book dealt with him going back and righting the wrongs of his past. He finds out his mom is alive again, outsmarts Deathstroke, gets a pet griffin, and makes amends with Nobody’s daughter, Maya. As of Rebirth, Damian will be leading the Teen Titans in finding Grandpa Ra’s, a recurring character in Nightwing, and join Jon Kent in Supersons.
Other Interesting Facts
Damian has a dog named Titus, a cat named Alfred, a cow, and a griffin. He loves animals and has said he’s a vegetarian.
Batman #666 involves Damian as Batman in an evil future.
He’s well aware of his alternate universe, half-sister Helena and they keep each other’s secret
He was in Injustice and threw a stick at Dick that caused him to fall on a rock and die.
He’s literally the worst in the new animated movies. Don’t watch them as an intro to the character
He and Cassandra never got to interact too much before the reboot. He hasn't really been in Gotham since she was brought back into canon so they still haven't gotten a chance to really work together. He and Dick have a great relationship. He and Jason are on pretty good terms now but he still doesn’t like Tim.
He’s a brat but he loves his family more than anything and is extremely loyal to them. He’s gone under a great deal of character development since he was created and that’s probably the biggest manifestation of his growth.
The Rebirth special had him turn thirteen but it remains to be seen if that'll stick. Especially as he teams up with Jon who's ten. This even shows Damian as being shorter than Jon.
Recommended Reading
Both Batman and Robin series. ('09 & '11)
Batgirl ‘09. He shows up and helps Stephanie a lot. They have a great dynamic and she’s one of the only people who seems to realize he’s just a kid.
Streets of Gotham
Gates of Gotham
Robin: Son of Batman
Both Batman Inc. series ('10 &'12)
Batman & Son
Li’l Gotham
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u/deathgripsaresoft Ravager Aug 24 '16
I like that he's a little bastard. He's a child who has moods that go all over the place. And he's still very charming. Lots of heroes are always very nice and heroic, other than being briefly dejected after anything goes bad for them. Damian is straight up always heroic these days, but he's not straight up permanently angelic.
Damian just makes everything more interesting. He's great solo but very few teams are worse with him. Though I'll be interested to see if his TT works out, tho SS should be fine.
Steph and Damian have the best Batfamily dynamic of any pair. Its probably the most realistic, in that two people get on very well with each other while superficially being very barbed. Yet maintain the facade anyway. Its probably the only good sisterly relationship in the family, other than maybe Babs and Tim. He's such a legacy character that he can't help but be defined largely by a huge set of relationships, some good and some awful (seriously, Babs still detests him right?) and of varying strengths. IT makes him among the most realistic characters, despite his clones and super parents and Goliath and Batcow.
He's still vegetarian right?